Cisco's shares
CSCO, -0.50%
gained $1.28, or 5.65%, to close at $23.93. The company's stock had recently been trading at its lowest level in nearly two years, though shares jumped 3% before the company's fourth-quarter report Tuesday.

"Cisco executed well in a challenging macro environment and posted solid results for the July quarter," analysts at Jefferies & Co. wrote in a note Wednesday. "The U.S. enterprise segment showed encouraging trends as Cisco saw accelerating growth."

Analyst Samuel Wilson of JMP Securities told clients in a research note that his sense "is that investors were relieved that Cisco did not guide down more; the stock rallied in after hours."

"It's tough out there, no question," Sue said in a research note. "Yet Cisco's portfolio approach and diversification across geographies and product segments seem to be working well as evidenced by its strong revenue growth."

For the quarter ended July 26, Cisco
CSCO, -0.50%
reported net income of $2 billion, or 33 cents a share, compared with a profit of $1.9 billion, or 31 cents a share, for the year-earlier period. Adjusted income was 40 cents a share. Analysts had expected the networking giant to report earnings of 39 cents a share, according to a survey by FactSet Research.

Revenue was $10.4 billion, up from $9.4 billion; analysts were expecting revenue of $10.3 billion.

Chief Executive Officer John Chambers described the results as "solid," as the company gained from growing demand for networking gear. However, he also noted the uncertainties in the technology market as it reels from the global economic slowdown.

"We all see the same mixed signals in the market from both a U.S. perspective and other parts of the world in terms of economic momentum, stock-market behavior, energy costs and confidence changes," Chambers said during a conference call with analysts Tuesday.

On that call, Chambers reaffirmed Cisco's revenue-growth projections of 12% to 17% per year over the long term. But he refrained from giving a specific target for the fiscal year that's recently begun, saying the company planned to wait until it becomes "more comparable with the predictability of when we believe our revenue growth will accelerate back toward our long-term guidance."

For the current quarter, Cisco said it expects revenue growth of 8% from the first quarter of last year, which translates to roughly $10.37 billion -- in line with analysts' estimates. The company also said it expects second-quarter revenue growth of around 8.5%, which translates to $10.63 billion. Analysts currently expect Cisco to report second-quarter revenue of $10.73 billion, according to FactSet Research.

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